The University as a Transnational and Transcultural Space: Reflections on the Rising “Knowledge Elite”

ABSTRACTDrawing on globalization theory and the concept of the university as a globally connected and interrelated space, the paper shows that transnational mobility of students, researchers and professors has greatly increased since the 1990s. This trend can also be noticed in the Alpe-Adria region and in Slovenia. The paper stresses that transnational mobility is especially characteristic of the “knowledge elite”, which consists of an increasing number of young people. With the help of focused interviews, which can be frequently found in the media, the paper emphasises that the “knowledge elite” is not to be considered separate from the present crisis of neoliberal global capitalism, which forces people into “marginal mobility”. The paper finally points out that the transnationalization of the university is also expressed in its transculturalism, which represents something other than merely an intensified union and medley of various national and cultural generations, as it means interweaving and connecting different cultures of knowledge into a new, so far unknown composition.KEY WORDS: university, transnational space, transcultural space, knowledge elite, transnational mobility